Lori Graham
Contributing Writer
MONTGOMERY COUNTY – Gentry Locke Law Firm was unanimously approved by MCPS School Board to conduct a third-party review into administration actions taken in connection with the Blacksburg High School murder-suicide that occurred in November 2023.
The event has left a community asking questions about the handling of teen intimate violence and sexual harassment in the county’s high schools.
The board voted for the review at their Jan. 30 meeting following a petition from BHS students, parents, and other community members. Principal Chris Stewart of Blacksburg High School was placed on a leave of absence from the school. Stewart had only taken the position of leadership at BHS a few weeks prior to the tragic event that resulted in the deaths of two students found in a Blacksburg parking garage. Students have petitioned for Stewart to return to his position at BHS, citing that he was not the administrator at that school when the event occurred.
In the public address portion of the Tuesday, Nov. 6 regular meeting of the Montgomery County Public School Board, Natasha Croy of Christiansburg addressed the Board concerning a no-contact order that her eighth grade son was “forced to sign without parental notification”.
According to Croy, the order was requiring her son to stay away from a previous sixth grade girlfriend whom she says he has not had contact with for over a year. According to Croy, her son was reported by other students to the bullying tip line. The letterhead of the no-contact order her son signed also does not reflect accurate information about the current police department, she said.
The resource officer that signed the document along with her son, was said to have stated that it is not a legal document and has no legal bearing on students. The document is supposedly used as a tool of intimidation to curb behavior. Croy has requested her son’s discipline records through the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) process but has yet to receive them.
